#3813 Blur - All the People: Live at Hyde Park 02/07/2009

3/5 it's easy to get caught up in the energy of this one. The setlist is a great trip through the eras, with an unexpected emphasis on older stuff. It's a striking reminder of how many great songs these guys really have. And, the crowd's mixed pretty high, singing along like you've never heard, and you get a real sense of being there in this overwhelming sea of enthusiasm.

But then you start to realize -- or at least wonder, anyway: does Blur suck live?

At very least, they're not _great here. Every song is played tight to spec. No variation, extension, transition, elevation; not one verb you could dredge up that would elevate this beyond a well-currated playlist + crowd noise.

And then there's the fact that they rush so many of the songs, sometimes giving a frenetic live energy, but mostly just sounding sloppy (and there's plenty of missed notes besides). And then there's the fact that Damon just can't really hang with the fast songs, sounding out of breath and a bit desperate. For example: the issues intersect on End of a Century, where the "as you get closer..to fifty" (nee 'thirty') line doesn't have a fraction of the beat it needs to land, Damon gamely working past every line like a child powering though his vegetables.

A worthwhile listen for the medium-to-hard-core Blur fan, but you might find yourself trying to convince yourself you're having more fun than you are

#3728 Squid - Lino

3.5/5 a simmering, mini-masterpiece of patient rock texture. There's no sign here of the blistering, brilliant EP they'd put out two years later, but there's still some nascent unknowable magic. The longer two songs here don't sound slowed down... they just unfold this way, as naturally and inevitably as glaciers. Even Squid's career's a slow burn, as they dribble out a song or four at a time; every snapshot of their evolution's worth hearing. A first-round-pick Band To Watch.

#3668 Gaz Coombes - World's Strongest Man

4/5 slow to start, with that kind of solo artist overstudied stiltedness, at first. Indebted to Albarn and Yorke in increasingly good ways. Invested in making an album that smolders, starts to burn on the second side, climaxes just before the end. Committed to making an album that plays as an album and isn't that refreshing

#3635 Madmadmad - Proper Music

3/5 when these guys play live the drums/bass/guitar bring a little unpredictable funk edge, the electronics get bent and flayed with rough edges; there's a negotiation between press-play motorik and knob-twiddling jamminess. That conflict's lost here though. It's all catchy, building up slowly, but nothing feels spontaneous - there's no life, no danger, song after song ending after a polite three and a half minutes

#3614 Penelope Isles - Until the Tide Creeps In

3/5 chiming, twinkling indie like they don't make much anymore. Pretty, but doesn't give you much to write about

#3582 Gum Takes Tooth - Arrow

3.5 a fetching helix of skitterey rock energy, ambient hums, and truly raw synths; sawtooth tigers ripping songs' spines out. It's a shame its all so doomy and serious though, this sound could make for a doozy of a raveup

#3572 Sports Team - Keep Walking!

3.5/5 the second coming of Team Spirit, sunny power-pop like we don't much get anymore. Great deep vocals, pretty guitars for days, clipping along like light through trees

#3571 Squid - Town Centre

4.5/5 Squid's secret weapon is that horn, a force multiplier on a killer combination of ambient groove and spikey thrills. Or maybe it's that singer, that's a fucking deadly yelp. The first band I've ever heard that started with the Talking Heads and didn't just end there; these dudes are off and running

#3474 Thom Yorke - Anima

2.5/5 clever, clattering, forgettable, sounding like king of limbs bsides, made me feel nothing

#3472 Black Midi - Schlagenheim

3.5/5 clattering, angular, hitched, as knotted as you can make rock music and keep it listenable. The Dismemberment plan with the uncertainty and heart drained out, replaced with sneering swagger

#3290 808 State - Outpost Transmission

The kind of confident electronic epic you can only make when you've mastered the tools. None of these songs are especially emotionally devestating, irresistibly bodyrocking, or intellectually thrilling, but these guys know their way around a synthesizer and every minute's as satisfying as a well-made meal. Well-paced, rock-solid 4/5

#2913 Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino

What a bad album! A loungey, slinking sluice of Spacehogey glam, like a hundred years in the 2001 room washed away Turner's every memory of the Arctic Monkeys.

And yet! Good god does it commit to the sound and concept. And around the third time you listen to Star Treatment's unearned confidence, a Midnite Vulture sliding into your DarkMoons like

it sounds a little sexy. This dude does not give a fuck.

And 6 tracks in, we're still locked in. Still doing . . whatever _this is. Close the deal, jesus.

Debut Test asks if an unexpected direction from an expectation-laden band would have been better received if it was some new band's debut. Abacab, Tiny Music, Adore, Congratulations, They Were Wrong So We Drowned (no, yes, yes, no, yes)

This time ask: could this have hoped to be more than a microcult hit if it wasn't for the trackrecord it's rejecting? (nah)

But that's what's happening! The nerve!

Not good, but I'm wildly glad it exists 3/5

#2889 Les Fleur De Lys - Reflections

A compilation of totally solid, utterly undistinguished garagey psych rock songs. A few ripping solos, a few pretty melodies, but this strictly by the book, and 24 tracks of it is numbingly plenty 3/5

#2880 The Jam - This is the Modern World

A rushed second album and it shows. London Traffic: was less time put into coming up with the idea or recording it? The two part message is that London has traffic and it's cause of the cars. They could've rattled off a hundred more like it in an afternoon (and might've). None of the urgency of their debut, none of polish of their later stuff - the 4th best Jam album at best - which is still pretty good cause the Jam're still pretty good 3/5

#2820 Phobophobes - Miniature World

Rumbling, muttering, clausterphobic post-punk, Interpol's cooler cousin strutting out of a Stooges oilslick. Insidiously catchy stuff, slathered in fuzz and screech, all slinking menace and charasmatic sneer 4/5

#2755 The Veils - Total Depravity

When they go for it, the Veils are worthy backing the most-harrowing Roadhouse scene, all simmering NiN menace and Tom Waits mythmaking - Axolotl and King of Chrome are highlights, rippling with electronic disturbances and howling unease.

But they don't hit those highs often enough, and the album's heavy with filler, or of intentional watering-down, some muddy blend of War on Drugs and late-era Black Keys. It's boring, stinking of too much money and too many producers 3/5

#2716 Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Who Built the Moon?

If Liam Gallagher's latest was another lap around the Morning Glory memorial speedway, Noel's turn driving the Oasis time machine pulls it off the track and into a ramp; a few spins into a slow motion slide.

It's telling that Noel attached a band name to his project - the album's got muscle and power, reaching for something bigger than its infamous frontman. A swirling, slinky, buzzy odyssey flows out, with shades of Primal Scream's latent dancability, and a touch of (god forbid!) late-era Blur.

The droning structures descend into watch-checking repetitions, but it's a pleasant kind of boring, fully filling your headspace, taking your brain for a solid little vacation 4/5

#2715 Liam Gallagher - As You Were

The Gallagher brothers release albums within months of eachother, because of course they do. Their two albums act like alternative futures, each taking place a year after What's the Story Morning Glory. In Liam's version, the band goes back to the well, spinning out the same kind of sunny, swaying melodies. Completely pleasant, but sounding like 15 totally solid Oasis B-sides, duly relegated 3/5

#2711 Tubelord - Our First American Friends

Man, I don't know if all these bands were talking to eachother or what, but there was a great scene of bursting, blistering rock music pouring out of the UK circa 2009. The drums always a fraction of a beat ahead, guitars blasting out overcomplex riffs, the vocals yelping at the desperation of keeping up with the song //

like, life, man.

Good fun, packed with halting start-stops, easier listening than Dananananakroyd, trading some of their raw power for precision, for better or worse: there's no Some Dresses to be found, but it's a Japandroids-level smooth-rolling rider that you can put on and let your toe go to town on 4/5

#2710 Sky Larkin - The Golden Spike

Great, toetapping indie, ready to lean into really bringing the energy on that sweet Dananananakroyd // Campesinos // Tubelord level. 2009 really was a hell of a year for that UK burstrock scene. The chugging and chiming's infectious --- and let me call out the best thing about this record.

Some time around song 8 I click over to the spotify app and I skim that playlist and I'm like, man! 17 songs! I'm already getting kinda restless! And this is a case for not knowing when the end is coming when it comes to temporal media.

Because what the album actually does is end at track 12 (a totally standard ending pace!), rolling out on a glorious climax of proggy organ riffs, burning itself out with aplomb. Album over. Thank you for coming. What a show.

And 10 seconds of silence.

And an encore.

Untitled rolls up slowly, and Handsome slowly gears back in, subclimaxing with these great guitars that, again, would make Steve Hackett blush. And then a couple extra great little ditties, and by the time Sum Assault rides out you're euphoric.

As 17 songs it would feel stretched, overstuffed. But in the listening its just like a great rock show -- you're left wanting a little more and then you get a bit too much, and you walk out feeling dazed and satisfied.

This shit matters. It's so much better than it would've been without that break in pacing. Album flow matters. Audience experience matters because experience matters. Why is this so fucking underappreciated? Fuck, so much better than it has to be. I feel like I want to go back to this again and again, because the music is good, but because it's been laid out for listening, god fucking forbid 4/5